Roubaix (AFP)
A little for fear of the British variant, but above all in order to be able to see their relatives, a thousand Roubaisiens were tested Monday on the first day of a massive screening campaign which should make it possible to see more clearly the circulation of the coronavirus and of its variant.
Of the 1,036 people tested Monday in the six centers dedicated to the screening operation, only three people tested positive, according to a report communicated at the end of the day by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Hauts-de-France .
The British variant, "it's scary and that's why I'm here today," Abdelhafid Benmimoun confided on Monday morning.
This 42-year-old private driver is one of the "good students" who came to be tested as soon as the operation was launched in Roubaix, when he has already been tested five times.
"I want to protect my family, so if I could do the test every day, I would," he says, waiting about fifteen minutes to get the result of his antigen test.
Behind a row of voting booths, pharmacists in overcoats, charlotte, visors and FFP2 masks are busy submitting candidates to a PCR test and then to an antigen test.
This duplication should make it possible, according to the organizers, to compare the results of the two methods and to evaluate the effectiveness of antigenic tests on the general population.
"I'll have to do a second" apologizes Solenne Castelet to Micheline, 73 years old.
"It makes a funny effect, it tickles, it itches but it doesn't hurt," smiles the latter behind her mask.
- "Stay mobilized" -
"We would all want to move on to the next phase, but we must remain very mobilized: being tested is a pillar of our strategy to fight the pandemic", insisted on the spot the Secretary of State Laurent Pietraszewski, while the vaccination campaign must accelerate this week.
The operation is also launched at a time when "we are particularly vigilant but in view of the first results, not particularly worried" about the British variant of the coronavirus, at the origin of an epidemic outbreak in the United Kingdom, assured the Secretary of State.
According to the Regional Health Agency, two cases of this variant were confirmed on Sunday in Lille but do not cause concern.
In Roubaix, the test campaign should make it possible to assess the circulation of this variant and of possible others, such as South Africa.
All positive samples will in fact be subjected to sequencing in order to identify the possible presence of variants.
A crucial sequencing according to Professor Philippe Froguel, geneticist and member of the steering committee of this campaign, to be able to adapt the vaccination campaign to the situation.
- The risk of being "overwhelmed" -
"In a month and a half, the English virus has become preponderant in a large part of England, the contagion is enormous, the hospitals are completely overwhelmed," he warns.
"If we do nothing, we will probably find ourselves in the British situation between 1 and 15 February, if we do something, we can try (...) to have geographically adapted measures, in particular with Moderna vaccines who would rather go to Marseille or to the North-East of France ".
He hopes that 20 to 30% of the 97,000 Roubaisiens will come to be tested, while attendance has only reached about 10% of the inhabitants in Le Havre and 20% in Charleville-Mézières.
For Amandine Ciroldi, a 34-year-old carer, "everyone should do it".
"We all want this to end, to hug our loved ones".
However, she will not be vaccinated, unless she is "obliged to do so for her job", she says: "I am against vaccines and I have heard that there were lots of deaths, I am not a guinea pig ".
© 2021 AFP